Normal, Alabama -- home of the Alabama A&M University Bulldogs -- is not normally a place where you'd expect to find a former member of the Middletown Mustangs. But that's where Kyle Harmyk, class of 2009, will be doing his quarterbacking for the next two seasons, courtesy of a full scholarship he has been awarded to the school, which began life as Alabama Normal. Thus the town name.

The Bulldgos compete in NCAA Division I-FCS, formerly NCAA I-AA.

Whether he'll be the starting QB at Alabama A&M when it opens its 2013 season at Grambling State on Aug. 31 is a decision that will rest in the hands of Bulldogs head coach Anthony Jones, who is in his 12th year at the A&M helm. "I have no idea about that," says Jones.

A man of few words, Jones said that he signed Harmyk to a letter-of-intent because "he has an outstanding arm and he can run."

He'll need those skills. There are some tough customers on A&M's schedule, including Georgia Tech in the Bulldogs' final game.

For those who remember Harmyk it should come as no surprise that he was snapped up by a Division I-FCS college. Certainly not Middletown coach Bill Foltmer or Harmyk's coach at Mendocino College, Chris Snyder.

"Without a doubt he's a DI-level player," says Foltmer. "I've always had high expectations for Kyle. He's just got to beef up a little bit, but he's what Division I coaches are all looking for - a tall, lanky kid who's athletic, throws a good ball and has good sense for the game."

Harmyk, a 6-foot-5 beanpole, acknowledges that he needs to carry more weight. "I'm still that skinny guy. I've been in the weight room a lot, trying to gain weight," he said.

Nevertheless, Foltmer said he always felt Harmyk had "DI potential."

"You want a quarterback at the high school level who can run the offense, pass and do what you need to do to win football games," he said. "Kyle was one of the quarterbacks we had who could take it a step further. He can run a two-minute drill. He's the kind of kid who would be deep in that pocket and finding those receivers over the middle. He saw the field real well."

While at Middletown, Harmyk was honored as a Football Foundation Hall of Fame scholar-athlete winner.

A player who is continuously improving, Harmyk threw for 2,300 yards and 22 touchdowns last season at Mendocino College in Ukiah, which earned him first-team All-Bay Valley Conference honors and the unstinting praise of Snyder.

"He's the kind of young man who had leadership skills and was ready to step into a role for us to kind of make the whole thing go last season," said Snyder "He had a great year for us. He was kind of the 'trigger man' in our offense. He was up-tempo and up-pace and we play a pretty vertical up-tempo kind of game. To play the kind of game we do is kind of all about the quarterback. So it's important to have a solid guy at quarterback and Kyle gave us that."

Snyder said that Alabama A&M got on Mendocino's radar when Jones "was looking for a QB and kind of reached out to us."

Although other colleges showed interest in Harmyk (Foltmer thought he would enroll at UC Davis upon graduating from Middletown), Harmyk said he made his decision to accept an offer from A&M because Jones was serious enough to pay him a visit. "That was a major plus," he affirmed.

Another reason was because the Southeast is probably the most watched sector of the U.S. by the NFL.

"Yeah, definitely that was factor in going here," Harmyk said. "I felt there was a better opportunity to go to the next level."

Regarding his improvement, he added, "I wouldn't say I've changed my technique. I've definitely improved at throwing the ball, but I think the key factor is I just became more aware of reading college defenses -- cover 3, cover 1, cover 2 -- and what to expect from those defenses. "

He has also worked on being quicker when it comes time for him to pull the ball down and take off. "I've been working on being quicker. I'm not scared to run the ball."

After arriving in Normal recently, Harmyk can make only one assessment.